Free financial advisory platform WiseBanyan released its first premium package this week, Tax Protection. The new services – WiseHarvesting, Selective Trading, and IRA Conversions – enable investors and savers to manage the way their investments impact their taxes. The WiseHarvesting feature helps balance out investment gains with harvested investment losses. Selective Trading keeps investors from owning the same ETFs in multiple accounts. And IRA Conversions enable investors to switch from traditional to Roth IRAs.
The Tax Protection also comes at a low cost. Investors can take advantage of any one of the services for 0.02% of their average account value, with a maximum charge of $20 a month. WiseHarvesting, the company’s first premium service, is already available to WiseBanyan clients. Those currently using WiseHarvesting will be use to add the new services without additional cost.
Pictured (left to right): Wise Banyan Co-CEO and Co-Founder Herbert Moore and Chief Science Officer Jennifer Chin during their presentation, “Data as an Advantage: Building a Data Warehouse with Open Source Tools” at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016.
In a blog post announcing the new service, WiseBanyan Manager of Content Strategy Aliza Kellerman added that the company has “a ton of other packages in the works, all designed to provide additional value to your WiseBanyan experience,” and credited feedback from its “fantastic, passionate, vocal clients” for inspiring new features like Tax Protection.
Pledging to help investors make their first $100,000, WiseBanyan is a free platform that provides automated, goal-based investing and financial planning. With a $1 minimum, investors can provide their investment time horizon, risk aversion, and amount saved, and WiseBanyan builds a portfolio designed to maximize real investment returns on an after-tax basis. Customer funds are invested in liquid, equity and bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs), and WiseBanyan monitors the portfolios continuously, reinvesting dividends and tracking progress toward the pre-set goal.
Founded in 2013, WiseBanyan discussed its technology at FinDEVr Silicon Valley 2016 last fall, winning “Best Debut Company.” The company’s presentation, “Data as an Advantage: Building a Data Warehouse with Open Source Tools,” was led by co-CEO and co-founder Herbert Moore and Chief Science Officer Jennifer Chin. In March, WiseBanyan won the Startup Pitch competition at SXSW and was also named “judge’s favorite” – earning a $1,000 prize from LaunchKC. The company was featured in Business Insider’s 2017 roster of the 15 Best Roboadvisors and also earned a spot on Nerdwallet’s Best Robo-Advisors: 2017 Top Picks list.